Red Bull hail 'new chapter' with Roglic-led team

Primoz Roglic, third right, will lead the Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe team

Red Bull has officially announced its partnership with the Bora-Hansgrohe team before the Tour de France.

They will now be known as Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe and aim to win the Tour with Slovenia's Primoz Roglic at the forefront.

"Today we open a new chapter in our team's history," said the team's CEO Ralph Denk.

The Austrian drinks giant announced its intention to invest in a cycling team early this year.

Red Bull is across much of elite sport and especially influential in Formula 1, where it has dominated for the past three years with Max Verstappen leading their charge.

Budgets of teams are notoriously hard to estimate in cycling, but the introduction of Red Bull is expected to allow the German-registered World Tour team to eventually compete with road cycling's 'big three' - Ineos Grenadiers, UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike.

"I would even go so far as to say that this is a milestone for cycling as a whole," added Denk. "Our project has always been ambitious, but now we clearly have our sights set on the top."

Oliver Mintzlaff, CEO Red Bull Corporate Projects, said: "We are very ambitious, we want to continuously develop and take the next steps to win grand tours and the biggest races in cycling."

Bora-Hansgrohe's recent achievements include winning the 2022 Giro d'Italia with Australia's Jai Hindley, and having star one-day racer Peter Sagan on their team.

But the signing of four-time Grand Tour winner Roglic, 34, for this season has sign-posted a new ambition to win the Tour de France.

A revitalised Roglic won the Criterium du Dauphine warm-up race earlier this month.

Red Bull has previously focused on sponsoring specific riders in cycling, including Britain's Tom Pidcock and Belgian Wout van Aert.

The company has also invested heavily in football clubs, such as RB Leipzig and Championship side Leeds United.